Welcome to the latest edition of my world famous This and That column. This being Royal Rumble week you may notice a bit of a wrestling theme as we take a stroll around the sports world and talk about the latest happenings for the Bruins, the Niners and other topics from around the sports world. So without further ado or gilding the lily, lets jump right in.

One Man Gang—I have been calling for the Bruins to add more scoring since last season.  Well, their lack of scoring has gotten to the point of being a one-man team.  David Pastrnak is the Bruins offense.  In their last 3 games they have score 6 goals.  He has scored or assisted on all of them.  He has scored or assisted on 17 of their last 27 goals.  He has 7 more goals than second place Marchand and 14 more assists than the captain.  In January he has 11 goals and 11 assists in 12 games.  Zacha, his line mate, is second in helpers with 9 and Geekie, his other line make, is second in goals with 7.  There is just no offense without him.  After his slow start he has moved up the NHL scoring list to 9^th in points and 10^th in goals.  Trading him would mean losing 90% of their remaining games.  At this point in the season there probably isn’t enough time to fall to the bottom of the league, but if they traded him right now, they would come close.  This is why you do not trade him and why they desperately need to get him some teammates who can actually put the puck in the other team’s net.      

Million Dollar Men—The LA Trolly Dodgers, nope, not still bitter, have gone on another spending spree this offseason.  I do not have a problem with this except for the fact that it is going to give the powers that be an excuse to bring a salary cap to Major League Baseball.  I am so against salary caps.  They do absolutely nothing except keep billionaires from spending money.  I know that having billionaires spend money is a sin in America these days but I am all for it.  The idea that a salary cap creates parody is an absolute lie.  The NFL has a salary cap and KC is about to win its 3^rd straight Super Bowl.  They are playing in the 5^th in 7 years.  And this is after the Patriots played in like what? 15 out of 20.  The NBA has a salary cap and it has been a league of Dynasties since it’s inception in 1946.  Sure, in the last 6 years they haven’t had a repeat champion but the Celtics played in two of those finals, the Heat in two of them, and Golden State in 2 of them.  Hell, the Warriors have played in 6 of the last 10 Finals.  Not really parody. Why? Because salary caps don’t create parody.  Bad teams are bad because they make bad decisions.  Good teams are good because they make good decisions.  The Dodgers are good because all the Japanese players want to play in LA.  If anything, Baseball needs a salary floor so that the greedy, already billionaire owners will stop pocketing their revenue sharing and other profits and actually spend the money on their teams.

New World Order—The San Francisco 49ers have revamped their coaching staff except for Kyle Shanahan, of course.  The promoted Klay Kubiac to offensive coordinator.  What ever that means in the Shanahan staff.  I think it was just a way to keep him from leaving to be someone else’s OC.  Much more importantly they brought back Robert Saleh as their defensive coordinator and brought in Brant Boyer as their Special Team coordinator.  Saleh was an obvious choice once he lost the Jets head coaching job.  It’s a shame Saleh ever left. I don’t blame him but I till say defensive coaches as head coaches are a bad idea.  We know what Saleh can do on defense so hopefully it will not take him long to get that side of the ball yup to the standard it was at when he left five years ago.  As for Boyer, he has been the Jets special teams coordinator for 10 years surviving 4 coaching changes.  That’s a good sign that he is really good.  Aslo a good sign is Pat McAfee’s response to the Niners bring him out west…  Holy shit. This guy’s a beast.”  “I think even Jets fans would say, ‘There was a lot that went wrong with our team, our special teams was great.’ Blocking kicks, taking kicks to the house … you name it. Boyer’s a dog.”  How can you go wrong with an endorsement like that.  Hopefully McAfee knows of which he speaks because cleaning up the Niners Special Teams units is a big task and if done, would be a huge improvement to the team. 

Fabulous Free Bird—In a big, unexpected turn of events, Brittney Griner let it be known that she is testing the free agent market this offseason.  She had always said she was only gong to play for the Mercury.  It makes you wonder what changed her mind.  To me it would indicate one of two things, if not both.  For one, it could me she knows Diana Taurasi is calling it a career and no longer feels connected to the Mercury.  The other factor could be that she does not feel she fits (or wants to fit) into head coach Nate Tibbitts offense.  Tibbitts wants to play like the Celtics do and employ a three-point heavy offense.  That is obviously not Griner’s strong point.  Maybe she wans to see if there is a team out there that wants her to play down low more and dominate in the paint.  The Celtics do use Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta in their offense, neither of whom shoot three pointers.  However, they are not featured options and play off of the other players.  Griner could be looking for a bigger role than she can have in Tibbitts offense.  Brittney leaving will be a big blow to the Merc.  Hopefully if she does depart, they will be able to find a more fitting replacement.  It still pains me that they let Alanna Smith go. 

Call to the (Scott) Hall—Ok that one’s a stretch but best I can do and anytime you can mention the Bad Guy, you really have to.  With that said, the Baseball Hall of Fame has added 3 more members to it’s halls this year with CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, and Billy Wagner getting the call.  It’s always great to see two more Yankees make it into the Hall of Fame.  Sabathia and Ichiro are more than worthy to be enshrined.  Ichiro was a no brainer and I am glad CC made it on the first ballot.  He was such a warrior on the mound and performed so well in big games.  He was the Ace of the 2009 World Series Champion Yankees and previously had dragged the Milwaukee Brewers to the playoffs even though he and everyone else knew he was just a rental and would not be a Brewer after the season.  Which shows what a great teammate he was.  He one of those guys you want on the mound in a must win game.  Wagner finally made it after his 10^th year on the ballot.  Personally, I think you should only get 3 tries to get in at most but a lot of guys took a while to get in so Wagner is far from alone.